Mars rover Perseverance has been sent to search for signs of ancient microbial life on the dusty, dry planet in the form of tiny microfossils that will prove that Mars was once habitable.
It would have been a remarkable find indeed, but this new paper urges caution in interpreting what is found, both in this source and in the future.
READ: NASA’s Mars Explorer Collects Mineral-Laden Green Rock Samples
According to astrobiologist Sean McMahon of the University of Edinburgh and geobiologist Julie Cosmidis of the University of Oxford in the UK, scientists should keep an eye on non-biological mineral deposits that look very similar to fossils.
In a new paper, the scientists have outlined dozens of non-biological or abiotic processes, which can produce pseudofossils – structures that look like fossils of microscopic organisms that may have once existed on Earth. Mars .
“At some stage, Mars explorers will almost certainly find something very similar to a fossil, so the ability to distinguish it from the structures and substances created by chemical reactions is very important,” McMahon was quoted as saying. Science Alert, Saturday (20/11/2021).
So far, scientists are said to have been involved in spectacular discoveries on Mars. There are micrologists who think they may have found fungi on Mars or entomologists who think they have found insects on the planet.
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